George Smitherman to join John Tory on Newstalk 1010 radio show

Breaking news this afternoon that George Smitherman, the former mayoral candidate and Deputy Premier, has moved on from politics—sort of. The man who placed in the mayor’s race will be joining former foe-across-the-aisle John Tory as a fill-in radio host on Tory’s drive-time talk show. According to the Toronto Star’s David Rider, the announcement is coming this evening on Newstalk 1010.

His new job will give him a pulpit to critique Rob Ford, who owes some of his popularity to regular guest spots on a rival talk radio station.

Sources say Smitherman has turned down an offer from Dalton McGuinty to run in the Oct. 6 provincial election.

After having no income for almost a year while he campaigned for the mayoralty, the gay married father of an adopted toddler plans to focus on his career.

The Star adds “he plans to run again for office at some point in the future.” When the rumours started circling that Smitherman would have a big announcement later today, we briefly entertained the theory that he was announcing running against Jack Layton in Toronto-Danforth in the presumably-coming Federal election, but it seems Smitherman’s political ambitions will wait just a bit longer than that.

Meanwhile, Torontophiles who watched the election are busy having a bit of fun at the expense of Smitherman, Tory, and Newstalk 1010 on the Twitter-box. It’s almost like the election never ended.